Thomas Pikketty's Capital- Page 2

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 10:52am

Come on, Namo. When have you EVER rejected an invisible hand?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 10:53am

Good point. See LH, why can't YOU make good points like most everybody else here?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:05am

Wow...interesting thread turned into this!

That was the most uncool thing on this site in a very long while...and that's saying a lot!

What an ahole! Of course, that was exposed with the rant that boiled down to mishearing a television commercial.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:08am

Some people realllllllllllllllllly can't abide critiques of end stage capitalism!

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:14am

Not only is it deeply uncool, it's also kinda deeply hilarious. Mostly because it brought to mind my most very favorite Austin Pendleton's line from my most very favorite Austin Pendleton performance in 1972's WHAT'S UP, DOC?:

'Hugh, you're a bad loser, you're a plagiarist and you're nasty. I don't like you and I want you to go away.'

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:18am

Whenever I think of Austin Pendleton, I always think first of "Hello Again," but please don't ever tell him that I said that.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:19am

Namo, maybe you should start another thread on Capital since I don't think this one is going to be very productive.

I was enjoying the discussion and looking forward to more.

Plus I think that it's an important issue for discussion. There are excellent arguments worth exploring from both ends of the spectrum.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:20am

Ha! What's a Eunice?

I find myself wondering what the logic model is? Does a person hope that another person's reactions to him aren't honest because they are rendered anonymously? Does that person hope that by breaching the anonymity the other person will change course and give him his Sally Field moment?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:21am

Taz, I think we can get this back.

Did you say you were finding the book readable?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:33am

I will be very impressed if you say yes. Even reading articles about it makes me hyperventilate.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:33am

Yes, so far. It's obviously not a beach read, but I don't think it requires any depth of economics to get what he's saying.

Of course if someone has a deeper knowledge of econ than it may resonate a bit more.

He focuses more on macro than micro (a good thing for those readers who hate econ) and anyone who's ever read an editorial by Paul Krugman will immediately click in to what Pikketty is driving at.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:36am

PJ, I think you may be surprised how readable it is.

He traces the historical roots of American economic trends. When you read it with this context it's really logical.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:46am

For instance, does he really recommend that income be taxed at two-thirds or three-quarters? Or is that just a misleading reduction by his detractors?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 11:46am

I have been trying to read sciencey things targeting a lay audience after a lifetime of sabotaging myself by thinking I could never understand it. And it's kind of worked a little.

Maybe I can do the same with Pikketty. I mean, with the neo-cons harrumphing that he's neo-Marxist I feel like it's almost an obligation!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 12:46pm

Growl, Austin Pendleton and I had a very long chat a couple of years ago about HELLO AGAIN. He said people talk to him all the time about it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 12:48pm

Now, Pendleton seems like a neo-Marxist.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 12:49pm

He makes a case for higher taxes on the wealthy but that 2/3 or 3/4 is not at all what he's saying.

I should clarify that I don't agree with all his views. He is very left leaning and I have generally found myself in tune with more moderate economic theories.

But his research is vast and his points are excellent for starting dialogues.

The main thing I have found when debating any and all economic theories is that they are like reading tea leaves.

No one knows how things will play out because they are all based on the assumption that people will act like rational players.

That's often not the case.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 12:49pm

He posts here a lot, actually. He uses some weird screen name with "head band" in it or something.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 12:59pm

Thomas PIkketty does? His accent is how you say tres adorable!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 1:29pm

Jordan, that's awesome. I hope he appreciates it.

Thomas Pikketty's "Capital," I mean!!!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 3:02pm

My big wish is this thread doesn't get deleted.

It's revealing in ways somebody hadn't intended.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/2/14 at 3:04pm

As my grandfather used to say, "Screencap, screencap, screencap."

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/3/14 at 3:17pm

"I hope Elizabeth Warren gives back those millions of dollars she received in campaign funding from the super wealthy and wall street bankers, then..."

So, as I understand your point Liza's, if a politician has been supported by plutocrats (and just about anyone in a position of power has been supported by plutocrats, for the simple reason that we do live in a country where it is almost impossible to get elected without the help of big money), then that politician has two choices:

a) fight for the plutocrats no matter whether their interests coincide with the nation's or not, in which case the politician is a puppet, or

b) refuse to fight for the plutocrats when their interests conflict with the nation's, in which case the politician is - according to your quip, Liza's - a hypocrite.

What's wrong with defining these two types of politicians this way? What's wrong with it is that a) if we only want puppets, then nothing could ever possibly change and we will continue to live in a country where no one inside government challenges plutocracy; and b) if we demand that our politicians be neither puppets nor Liza's-styled hypocrites then there would be no one left to govern.





Updated On: 5/4/14 at 03:17 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/4/14 at 12:16am

We must admit it's startling that LH would have anything against puppets and hypocrites.